A seaplane transporting an eclectic band of passengers to China is blown off course by a storm and crash lands in the South Pacific near an uncharted island. With the pilots killed and the plane destroyed, the passengers make their way to the island to seek refuge and assistance in getting rescued. The only inhabitant of the island is a convicted murderer who came to the island some time ago to escape from his past and to find himself. While the passengers contend with their own past misdeeds and must find it in themselves somehow to move past them and work together to make it back to civilization, our beach combing criminal must decide if he's to let them use his boat to make it off the island while he struggles with his growing feelings for one of the passengers.